Service Level Agreement
Last updated: December 31, 2019
This Service Level Agreement (“SLA”) is a binding agreement between Information Officer and Customer and supplements the Terms of Service executed between the parties, (the “Agreement”).
This SLA covers the following elements of the Service:
- Network Performance
- Hardware Replacement
- Support Response Time
- Domain Name Services
- Power Availability & Performance
*”Uptime” refers to network performance, as defined in Article II.B below.
I. REMEDIES FOR SERVICE FAILURE
A. 100% Guaranteed
1. If the Service does not achieve the performance levels described in Articles II through X below (“Failure”), Information Officer will provide Customer with a 10x Service Credit (as defined below), pursuant to the provisions, requirements, and limitations of this SLA.
2. A “10x Service Credit” is a credit equivalent to the Customer’s Service Fees for the duration of the Failure, applied against fees for the Service Element (as defined below) subject to the Failure. (For example, where applicable pursuant to this SLA: a Failure lasting seven (7) hours would result in credit of seventy (70) hours of free service).
No credit will exceed Customer’s Fees for such Service Element for the then-current billing month. A “Service Element” is any element or feature of the Service assigned its own price on any Information Officer price list or invoice or on any quote given to Customer. All credits referenced in this SLA are 100% Service Credits.
B. Contract Termination Option
Customer may terminate the Agreement, pursuant to Subsection 3(b) of the Agreement, without advanced notice, in the event that Information Officer awards it 60 or more days of total credits during any single contract year, provided 3 or more separate instances of Failure occurred during such year. For purposes of this clause, a contract year is the 12-month period beginning on first day Information Officer provides Service. Notwithstanding the foregoing, this SLA does not authorize termination of any Service Element for which Information Officerpurchased telecommunications circuits or other resources for Customer’s sole use.C. Exclusive Remedies & Warranty DisclaimerThe remedies set forth in this SLA are Customer’s sole and exclusive remedies for Failure, including without limitation for any breach of warranty, except as specifically set forth in the Agreement.
II. NETWORK PERFORMANCE
Information Officer will deliver 100% Uptime, as defined in Part II.B below. In addition, Information Officer will deliver network performance meeting or exceeding the specifications listed in this Article II.
A. Network Performance Terms
“Jitter” means variation in Latency.“Latency” refers to the amount of time it takes for a packet of data to travel from one point to another.“Maximum Jitter” means the highest permissible level of jitter within a given period when there is no Network Outage.“Network Outage” means an unscheduled period during which IP services are not useable due to capacity-constraints on the Information Officernetwork or a hardware failure in the Information Officer network.“Packet Loss” means Latency in excess of 10 seconds.All Jitter, Latency, and Packet Loss metrics below are monthly averages, unless otherwise noted in this Article II.
B. Internal Network Performance
Network Outage: None
Packet loss < 0.1%
Latency < 5ms
Jitter < 0.5ms
Maximum Jitter: 10 milliseconds within any 15-minute period.
C. External Network Performance
At least two (2) of the specified networks in each continent will meet the performance specifications listed below at any given time, as measured by ColoServe. Information Officer may change the specific measured hardware devices without notice.
North American Network Performance
Packet loss to
West Coast of North America < 0.2%
East Coast of North America < 0.3%
Latency to
West Coast of North America < 45ms
East Coast of North America < 90ms
Jitter to
West Coast of North America < 1.0ms
East Coast of North America < 1.2ms
Maximum Jitter: 10 milliseconds during any 15-minute period.
Information Officer currently measures performance to the following North American networks: Verio, Level3, Above.net, UUNet.
South American Network Performance
Latency to South America < 220ms
Maximum Jitter: 10 milliseconds during any 15-minute period.
Information Officer currently measures performance to the following South American networks:
Brazil: UOL, STI
Chile: Netline, Firstcom
Argentina: UOL Sinectus, Sion
European Network Performance
Latency to Europe < 175ms
Maximum Jitter: 10 milliseconds during any 15-minute period.
Information Officer currently measures performance to the following European networks:
France: Tiscali, France Telecom, Neuf Telecom
United Kingdom: NTL, Zen, Pipex
Asian Network Performance
Latency to Asia < 170ms
Maximum Jitter: 10 milliseconds during any 15-minute period.
Information Officer currently measures performance to the following Asian networks:
Japan: Singtel, Tuka, IA Japan
Hong Kong: Uni Net, Linkage, HK Supernet
South Korea: Kornet, Moumnet, BoraNet / SuperNet
Australia Network Performance
Latency to Australia < 200ms
Maximum Jitter: 10 milliseconds during any period of 0.1% of a calendar month.
Information Officer currently measures performance to the following Australian networks: Optusnet, iiNet, Netspace, TPG, Adam Internet
South Africa Network Performance
Latency to South Africa < 480ms
Maximum Jitter: 10 milliseconds during any period of 0.1% of a calendar month.
Information Officer currently measures performance to the following South African networks:
South Africa: Coza, XSInet, Inloco
Zimbabwe: Mweb, Utande, Telconet
D. Limitations
This SLA does not cover (without limitation): (a) network performance to Customer’s physical location or internet access point (such as a local DSL/cable modem); or (b) failures due to denial of service attacks.
III. HARDWARE REPLACEMENT
Information Officer will repair or remove and install reasonably comparable replacements if it determines, in its sole discretion, that the hardware is defective within 6 hours. The period listed begins upon such determination. The period listed refers only to the time required to physically repair or replace the failed hardware element and does not apply to any time spent: (a) addressing data, operating systems, or other software or systems corrupted or destroyed by hardware failures; or (b) communicating with Customer regarding permissions or instructions.
IV. SUPPORT RESPONSE TIME
EMERGENCY tickets – 30 minutes
The following are the EMERGENCY categories:
- Server down
- Packet loss
- Routing issue
All other tickets – 120 minutes.
A tracking number will be provided to Customer promptly after ticket creation, and a support engineer will review the support request within the timeframe listed above. Information Officer may reclassify any ticket misclassified as falling into one of the EMERGENCY categories listed above, and such tickets will not qualify for EMERGENCY treatment. Resolution and repair times vary, and this SLA does not address them.
V. DNS
Primary DNS availability: 100%“DNS” means domain name server. A period of DNS failure is any time during which 100% of Information Officer’s Domain Name Servers simultaneously fail to respond to requests for name resolution. This SLA does not guarantee propagation of DNS data across the Internet or the hosting of secondary DNS service for Customer’s primary domain in another location, and it does not guarantee against zone inaccuracies due to operator error. No failure listed in the preceding sentence will be considered a Failure.
VI. POWER AVAILABILITY & PERFORMANCE
Information Officer will provide power availability sufficient to run Customer hardware 100% of the time. Information Officerwill also provide the power performance required below.
- Availability: 100%
- Voltage fluctuations: +/- 10%
A power Failure is a loss of electrical power or a voltage fluctuation, exceeding the limits above, in any part of the delivery system (utility company supply, on-site generation, UPS, circuit, or power strip) which causes Customer’s hardware to shut down. A period of power-related Failure is measured from the time that the support ticket is opened to the time that the electrical supply is restored, and does not include any time required to remedy any issues resulting from the electrical failure.
VII. CREDIT REQUIREMENTS
The following are required for credits:
A. Customer must open a valid and complete trouble ticket with Information Officer during any Failure, providing complete information regarding the nature of the problem, including any information reasonably necessary for diagnosis and correction. Customer will provide this notification even if Information Officer provides monitoring services.
B. Customer must provide Information Officer with accurate and complete designated points of contact. Customer must provide Information Officer with accurate passwords for maintenance and repair use by Information Officer engineers. Delays or failures caused by Customer’s failure to abide by the requirements of this Article XI.B do not constitute Failures.
C. Customer must request any credits by accurately completing the automated SLA Credit Request process within 48 hours of the start of the Failure.
VIII. CREDIT LIMITATIONS
A. The minimum period of Failure eligible for a credit is 60 seconds, and shorter periods will not be aggregated. The maximum credit for any single Failure is one month’s Service fees. In the event that multiple periods of Failure overlap in time, credits will not be aggregated, and Customer will receive credit only for the longest such period of Failure. The maximum credit during a single calendar year, for all Service Elements combined, is two months’ Service fees, regardless of the length of Failure or the number of occurrences. The period of Failure begins upon filing of a trouble ticket and ends when the Failure is remedied.
B. In the event that credits for any calendar month exceed 25% of Information Officer’s revenues for such period, Information Officer may reduce and pro-rate the value of credits given to all Customers for such period so that the aggregate credit given to all Customers does not exceed 25% of revenues. As used in the previous sentence, “Information Officer’s revenues” and “all Customers” refer to revenues and customers from Internet colocation services sold under the “Information Officer” brand, and not to revenues or customers from any other business unit operating under another name or providing services other than or in addition to Internet colocation. Information Officer may employ such accounting procedures as it chooses in calculating revenues, in its sole discretion, and nothing herein will be construed to require that Information Officer disclose non-public information about its finances to Customer or to any party.
C. Credits available pursuant to this SLA apply only to future service delivery. Information Officer is not required to provide refunds pursuant to this SLA. If Customer’s Signup provides for a Prepayment Period, credit will apply to any renewal of such Prepayment Period, but Customer may instead elect to apply credit to any additional Information Officer products or services. If Customer retains a credit balance on termination of the account in question, such credit is forfeited. Notwithstanding the foregoing, credits will not be applied against fees for Professional Services, bundled support, or setup fees.
D. Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary in this SLA, the following do not constitute Failures: (1) downtime during scheduled maintenance or Emergency Maintenance (as defined below) periods; (2) outages caused by acts or omissions of Customer, including its applications, equipment, or facilities, or by any use or user of the Service authorized by Customer; (3) outages caused by hackers, sabotage, viruses, worms, or other third party wrongful actions; (4) DNS issues outside of Information Officer’s control; (5) outages resulting from Internet anomalies outside of Information Officer’s control; and (6) outages resulting from fires, explosions, or force majeure.
“Emergency Maintenance” refers to any corrective action intended to remedy conditions likely to cause severe Service degradation, as designated by Information Officer in its sole discretion. Emergency Maintenance may include but is not limited to actions intended to address hardware or software failures or viruses/worms. As provided in Section 6 of the Agreement, Information Officer will exercise reasonable efforts to inform Customer in advance before interrupting the Service for Emergency Maintenance, but such notice is not guaranteed and failure thereof does not constitute Failure.
IX. Terms of Service / The Agreement
Terms defined in the Agreement will have the same meaning when used in this SLA. In the event of any conflict between this SLA and the Agreement, the Agreement will govern.